Pigeon Pair Slang This

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette, and it’s time for another slang quiz.

Grant, today’s contestant for slang, this is Mark Pachean from North Carolina.

Hello, Mark.

Hi, Grant. Hi, Martha.

Hiya, Mark. We understand that you are a physician. Do you use a lot of slang in your work?

Well, I’m a pediatrician, and probably my favorite slang comes back from years ago when one of my medical school mentors was telling kids to calm down by telling them to cool their jets.

And I’ve always thought that was a great expression, and I still use it to this day.

Cool your jets.

Oh, you know, I use that with my son all the time because he’s the most impatient person on the planet.

Cool your jets.

Well, Mark, are you ready to rev up your jets and play?

I’m ready.

Okay.

Here’s how we’re going to play the game. Grant is going to give you a sentence with a blank in it, and then he’ll give you three words that could fill in that blank, and your job will be to figure out which slang word fits best in that space.

Okay?

Okay.

I haven’t seen the questions either, so I’ll be on your side of the table listening, and we can talk about the clues if you like.

Let’s go.

All right. Let’s go.

All right. Here’s the first sentence.

I know the Dow just dropped 20%, but I’m sure there will be a blank in the next 48 hours. You can sell at a slightly lower loss if you time it right.

So, what goes in that blank?

Will there be a yellow canary swoop in the next 48 hours, a dog yelp, or a dead cat bounce?

Well, a yellow canary swoop doesn’t make any sense. If you’re talking about canaries and mines, that doesn’t have anything to do with coming up.

A dead cat bounce sounds more like something that’s dismal that at least is less dismal.

And a dog, what did you say, dog yelp?

Dog yelp.

I guess a dying dog could give one little life yelp before it dies.

Oh.

Could be either one of those less. I’ll go for a dead cat bounce.

Really?

And I think that’s pretty smart because economics is the dismal science, right?

Dismal science, right.

Mm—

Poor puppy, though.

Poor cat.

The cat’s already dead.

Poor kitty.

I hope it was a painless death.

You’re right.

It is a dead cat bounce. It’s one of those terms that the men on Wall Street used to suggest that the market would rebound just a little bit.

It’s one of those crude and juvenile terms that they use, but that’s pretty much what you’d expect from the same people who put our national economy in the state it’s in, right?

Right.

So not bouncing very much then, just going up a little bit.

No, just no bounce at all.

All right, let’s try another one, Mark. You ready?

Ready.

The second sentence.

Sally’s mother and father each were identical twins, but she and her brother, though they were also twins, were only blank.

So were Sally and her brother A, a pigeon pair, B, candlesticks, or C, double runts?

That’s R-U-N-T-S.

A pigeon pair, candlesticks, or double runts?

That’s right.

Well, did you say they were twins as well as the parents?

Yes, Sally and her brother were twins, and their mother and father were also twins of a pair, each twins with a sibling.

So did you say the parents were identical twins or not?

Right.

Yeah, each of the parents were identical twins, but Sally and her brother are not identical twins.

So what are they?

You’re talking to a pediatrician, Grant, so you have to be really clear.

Right, if they’re fraternal twins, but I’ve never heard any of those other slangs.

Say them again.

Yeah, a pigeon pair, candlesticks, or double runts?

I don’t know anything about pigeons, whether they’re supposed to ever look alike or whether they’re all variations.

Candlesticks don’t really, doesn’t imply differences, and double runts doesn’t really imply differences.

I mean, the runt of the litter doesn’t really, I guess if you’re a twin, you’re often more smaller than if you’re not a twin.

I would go with the first one.

A pigeon pair.

Pigeon pair.

That’s it.

You got it exactly right, Mark.

It’s a pigeon pair. This is one of those terms that goes back a couple hundred years, and a pigeon pair can be one of two things.

Fraternal twins that are a boy and a girl, or they can be non-twin boy and girl siblings who are the only children in their family.

So, Mark, that’s two for two.

Beautiful.

Yeah, great work.

I’ve got to make this harder.

So that’s it?

That’s it.

Well, the fireworks start in about five minutes.

Oh, man.

And I promise not to lip-sync the anthem.

Well, there is one more thing, Mark.

Yes?

To thank you, we’re going to send you a copy of Grant’s book called The Official Dictionary of Unofficial English.

Fantastic.

Thanks, Mark.

Thank you very much.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Well, if you have a question about pigeon pears or any other kind of English expression, give us a call.

The number is 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-929-WORD.

Or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.